It was requested that I post all the phase changes together on one page. Nested spoilers were refusing to cooperate nicely, so here's a big long non-spoilered version of it.

Mafia Round 71: No More Akos

The faint hum of electricity can be heard as the large screen in front of you buzzes to life, illumunating the otherwise dark room. A silhouette appears in front of the now lit screen of a woman, who takes one last drag of her cigarette as you wait for your briefing.

"Agent," she begins, "are you familiar with Akonyland?"

After a brief pause, you shake your head. You've heard the name in whispers in the halls recently, but nothing more substantial. Even so, the mention of the name sends a shiver down your back, like some dormant memory of a past life remembers something.

"I figured as much. Long story short, it's an estate that rivals a small country in size. It's usually considered one too, but the author never explicitly stated it one way or the other."

"Err... the author?" you ask. "What are you talki--"

"That's not relevant here," she interjects as she dismissively waves her hand. "What *is* relevant is an incident that occurred there a few years ago. While the people of Akonyland are largely ignored by other countries, due to their isolationist nature and because we couldn't care less about what they're doing, in recent years one by the name of Akonyl Bars became well known for his, well, err... eccentric lifestyle. He became even more well known when he showed up dead, and his butler showed up on the news to give out his will."

A lightbulb goes off in your head! Suddenly you remember a morning years ago, seeing something like that on the news as you ate breakfast... maybe in another life you would have gone too. "Oh right, I remember that. What ever happened with that?"

"It turned out the whole thing was a posthumous scheme between Bars and his butler, a number of people went missing and were later found dead from boot-related cranial injuries, among other things. The butler was arrested."

Oh.

"A real bad deal they got. What's weird is during the investigation, we found that with the butler in jail and Bars's cousin, Renaldo Blue, still in jail for Bars's death, there wasn't a single other living resident of Akonyland we found. Not a soul. The estate is abandoned now while legal ownership is handled."

"So..." you ask, "what's this briefing for? Isn't that case solved?"

"You wouldn't be here for something of that level, agent. The issue is the bodies. We found the bodies of those involved in the case, and a number of bodies dated to be centuries old, but none in between. No records of anyone leaving... so where did they go? At first we thought it was just sloppy investigating, until that raid we had on the Noir Collective's headquarters last month."

You remember that raid! It was a decisive blow to the Noir Collective, that group of bad people who does bad things for bad reasons, which your nameless organization has been opposing for an unspecified but really long time.

"We found centuries-old documents from two of their members, Kornia and Vodkhinkhun, who were involved in an incident in Akonyland. These documents mention both a superweapon and a cloning machine, the latter being used to create every resident of Akonyland."

"Well how about that! So you're saying they were all clones... but if they all died centuries ago, how were the new clones made?"

"That's the thing. We believe the machine can create clones automatically, and from recent scans of the Akonyland power plant's output, we believe it may be active right now. The mission you're being entrusted with is to secretly infiltrate Akonyland, since its ownership is still in dispute, and secure the cloning machine. If it exists, this could be a revolutionary advance for our country."

You look around the room, empty other than yourself and your superior. "Well... to be honest, this seems like more than a one person job."

"There will be other agents. However, because we can't be sure the Noir Collective hasn't infiltrated our ranks after the recent raid, we're briefing agents individually for this mission with only the information they need to know. You will be given a rendezvous point where you'll meet up with other agents. This briefing's gotten a bit long for an introductory post, so that'll be all, agent."

She turns off the screen and the room goes dark as she begins to leave the room.

"Oh, and also, you'll have a guide. You'll be getting the butler out of prison."

Subscription Phase Begins

You look at your watch. It's midnight, and here you are inside the fence of the prison compound where the Butler is being held, next to the main circuit box. The plan was to meet here to set the charges, but it looks like there's still a few stragglers.

Voice 1: "What's taking them so long? Did they oversleep? It's midnight, for crying out loud."Voice 2: "Maybe it's past their bedtime."Voice 3: "If the kids here could make it, I don't wanna hear an excuse like that from them."Voice 4: "Maybe they just want to keep us waiting... I know I do that from time to time."

Another voice cuts in to squelch the squabbling. "Alright alright, quiet down, that's enough of that. We're right next to the main circuit box for a prison right now, and in case you forgot, that means on the other side of this wall is a lot of people who don't like us and would shoot us if they know we're here. The others are nearby, they just had a few things to take care of first. We can set the charges while we wait, so that once they get here we can begin the infiltration immediately."

"Sounds good to me," a voice agrees. "You gotta wonder though... you think this mission's balanced?"

Squelcher: "...balanced?"Agreer: "Yeah, like, you think we'll be able to get this mission off without a hitch?"Squelcher: "That's the plan."Agreer: "But what if there's just enough infiltrators that this mission becomes a multi-week bloodbath?"Squelcher: "Well that's grim. Ideally there'd be no infiltrators on a mission, but... let's just do our best."Agreer: "Or maybe the infiltrators will ruthlessly and efficiently kill us all in a--"Squelcher: "Why did you agree with me to be quiet if you're not going to shut up? Shut up. Come on. This is gonna be a mess, isn't it..."

You had your own quip prepared to make fun of those stragglers too, but as the group goes silent it looks like you lost your chance to make fun of them as much as you wanted to, with your masterfully crafted own. Oh well, there'll always be a next time. Maybe. Or maybe you'll get a chance to "own" them to "death" on this mission for being late. Wouldn't that be funny?

...

Or maybe that above narration didn't apply to you at all, because you're one of those late people who's busy getting ready, oblivious to how much people are ribbing on you for your tardiness. Come on, they won't be waiting forever.

Prep Phase Begins

Last edited by Akonyl on May 28th, 2017, 8:40 pm, edited 4 times in total.

The last few stragglers finally make their way to the group, where everyone goes over the plan one final time. Walk in, grab the butler, blow the lights, and make a run for it under the cover of darkness. Easy enough.

The group enters the prison, where a man at a desk is busily shuffling through papers. He glances up at the mob in front of him and gives a long sigh.

Warden: "I'm pretty sure this thing is made out of cardboard. Actually, I think my daughter got one like that out of a box of cereal."

The warden crumples up the badge and throws it into the trash can, Conia's eyes frozen in shock.

Warden: "Is that it? If so, I'm gonna have to ask you all to leave. I'll have to report about this too."Memesu: "Wait! Err... hey, that's an interesting button on your desk. What does it do?"Warden: "It's the plot button. Don't push it."Memesu: "What happens if I do?"Warden: "Well, it advances the plot. I don't like it being out in the open like that, but it's there, so don't push it."

Memesu pushes the button. Memesu does not follow orders. Memesu follows her own rules.

Immediately sirens start to sound, as cell doors begin to unlock and prisoners exit their cells. The warden starts shouting, which causes cinnamoroll to activate the remote control for the charges outside in a panic, cutting the power and causing all the lights to go out as the building rumbles. Everyone gets shoved to the ground and trampled as the prisoners stream out of their cells and a prison riot begins. It looks like things have went pretty south, but at least it seems like the warden can't find you in the darkness and chaos either. Though, now that the lights are all out, and the backup generators will kick in soon, you're not sure how you're gonna get out of this...

As you protect yourself from being trampled by the stampede, you can barely make out a sobbing voice. "My... my badge..."

Night 1 (Stampede) Begins

Eventually the stampede dies down, as all the prisoners flee. At least that's what you think happened, because it's a lot quieter and nobody's stepping on you anymore. As you painfully stand up, the lights flicker back on as the generators whirr to life. In the corner near his desk, the warden is lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. You look at the people still around and standing and count heads. Including yourself, it looks like there's 18 people here. Looks like everybody's accounted for. You look around however, and notice that in the very not-small group that makes up your "small" Akonyland Infiltration Group, there's an extra someone still lying on the floor! Upon closer inspection it appears to be Iwamoto Yuri(Tome), trampled to death.

Abs.: "Well, yes, but how'd you guess?"Butler: "Well being a butler, you know, I'm very important. I figured it'd happen sometime. And you certainly don't look like prisoners."Kleene Onigiri: "Well, neither do you! If you're a prisoner, why are you still wearing a suit?"Butler: "As a butler, keeping up appearances is always important. I couldn't let myself wear one of those jumpsuits, could I?"PhoenixTears: "I still don't buy it. Sure, you may be important, but there's gotta be other important people here to break out, too."Butler: "Oh, yes. Very important. However, when I see a bunch as murdery as you lot, I figure they must be coming for me."PhoenixTears: "Uh, logic aside... murdery? We haven't killed anybody. Yet."

The butler laughs. "Oh, don't tell me you think the poor man was trampled to death? Don't tell me you don't recognize a broadsword when you see one!"

You squint at Yuritome's body. Now that he mentions it, there's actually a large broadsword stuck through his side! You're not quite sure how you missed it before, but it looks like one of you must have taken the opportunity to stab him during the confusion of the stampede! It's certainly tragic, but now that you've gotten the butler, you can't really afford to waste any more time reveling at the How's and What's of this murder, you need to escape before anything else happens.

Anything else, such as the warden waking up, and blocking your way out, and pointing a gun at you. Which is what's happening right now. It seems that although badly wounded and on the verge of losing consciousness, he's keen on fulfilling his wardenly duties.

Warden: "You punks... I won't let you leave with him! If he's leaving, he's leaving in a body bag!"

It looks like the warden is about to shoot the butler! The only way to stop it will be for someone to take the bullet in his place, but who? You certainly don't want it to be you.

Day 1 Begins

Last edited by Akonyl on May 28th, 2017, 8:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

As the warden readies his gun, one person is shoved in front of the butler more than the others.

Spoiler:

Votes:cinnamoroll: 2KamiteMemesu

dumytru: 2PhoenixTearsRaiden

Henry Gordan: 1Conia

KaitoRizu: 1Kleene Onigiri

Kamite: 1shinichi'sapprentice

MoonRaven: 1cinnamoroll

Raiden: 1MoonRaven

...or so you'd think. In reality, the group bumbles around and doesn't manage to put anyone in front of the butler. The butler is defenseless! Is this the end...?

It turns out not to be, as the warden succumbs to his injuries and passes out again before managing to shoot anyone, giving the group time to escape. Everyone runs towards the door, however, dumytru refuses.

dumytru: "We can't just leave him here!"cinnamoroll: "Who? The warden?"dumytru: "No, who cares about him? Yuritome!"PhoenixTears: "But he's..."dumytru: "No! I refuse to believe it! I can just imagine it now... him standing back up, broadsword and all, and saying something really sarcastically...!"Kleene Onigiri: "We know this is hard for you, but you have to let him go."Jecka: "Well, I guess it's a good idea. If we leave him here, the body could be used to link this incident to us. Maybe."PhoenixTears: "I guess..."Jecka: "Come on, let's go."

Dumytru picks up Yuritome's body and the group runs out of the prison, into a nearby forest where they've stashed a getaway jet in the bushes.

The butler scratches his chin. "Interesting. How does that work?"

Everybody shrugs.

"As good an answer as can be expected, I suppose," the butler comments as he shrugs in response. "Let's get going, then!"

The group enters the plane, ready to take off, when the butler asks a question.

Butler: "So! Who's the lucky soul who gets to fly the plane?"Raiden: "Well it isn't me."MoonRaven: "I get sick on planes, so I can't. Actually... urk..."blurfbreg: "We're not even moving! How can you get sick already? Anyway, didn't we have this written down somewhere?"Yurikochan: "Yeah, I had it. Lemme see, the pilot is..."

Yurikochan uncrumples the piece of paper and reads it in a very unenthusiastic voice.

Yurikochan: "...Yuritome."dumytru: "I knew it! I knew there was a reason to keep him here! Come on, Yuritome, speak up! We need you!"

The effort proves fruitless however, because Yuritome is as dead as a doornail. Obviously. Left with no other options, the group decides to draw lots to see who the unlucky newbie pilot is. With the loser chosen, they sulk off to the cockpit and the plane takes off without a hitch from the woodland. Pretty impressive.

As the plane flies towards Akonyland, everybody decides to play some games to pass the time. Solitaire, Parcheesi, Russian Roulette... wait a second.

Well, it looks like you're all doing this. What could go bad? Playing a game with a bit of danger is a good idea to keep you on your toes, right?

Night 2 (Bad Ideas) Begins

A 6-shot revolver is loaded with a single bullet and the drum is spun. Being the person who loaded and started the game, shinichi'sapprentice goes first. He holds the gun up to his head and pulls the trigger. Click.

The gun is passed to Kamite, who sighs as he takes his turn. Click. Conia, ever the tough guy, goes next. Click. Jecka is pulled in to take a turn. Click. Two more chambers left, it's a 50/50 chance... Memesu takes the opportunity, as everyone takes a deep breath in anticipation.

Click.

The deep breath becomes a deep sigh of relief, as everybody survived. Memesu just shrugs. Looks like nothing happened, because obviously nobody would take the last shot, since it's a guaranteed kill.

Butler: "Awful lively over here! What are you all doing?"Conia: "Russian Roulette, but we're--"Butler: "Oh! I love Russian Roulette!"Conia: "No, wait!"

The butler puts the gun up to his head and pulls the trigger. Bang! Conia (and most everyone else) starts screaming as the butler kills himself. What a mess, he was supposed to be your guide!

Butler: "AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"Kamite: "Wait, you're alive?"shinichi'sapprentice: "Of course, I just loaded a blank. You don't think I'd be using a real bullet, do you?"Conia: "...no. Not at all. It's obvious, Kamite should've known too."

The pilot jolts in their chair and screams in response, as a loud snapping noise is heard.

Pilot: "Geez, don't scare me like that! What's up?"Kamite: "How far until Akonyland?"Pilot: "Looks like we're approaching the border."Kamite: "That's good. What was that snapping sound, though?"Pilot: "Oh, that was the sound of the yoke snapping, you scared me so my hands jerked and it just snapped right off."Kamite: "...isn't that bad?"Pilot: "Yeah, I can't actually fly the plane anymore. So, we're probably gonna crash. Whoops."Kleene Onigiri: "Can't we do anything? Isn't there an autopilot?"Yurikochan: "Doesn't look like it. On the note saying Yuritome was the pilot, there's also a line written by Yuritome saying 'I uninstalled the autopilot, because autopilot is for chumps.'"Kleene Onigiri: "Fantastic..."

Everyone panics, but KaitoRizu isn't thrown off by things like crashing planes. Before long, they find where the parachutes are stored: 17 in total. How fortunate, everyone gets a parachute! KaitoRizu asks for everyone to line up to get one.

The group watches in horror as Yuritome(Zombie) shambles towards the plane's door and puts on the parachute he was so graciously given. He pulls the door's opening lever, shaking the plane suddenly as the door opens and the cabin begins to decompress. With a half-hearted zombie goodbye wave, Yuritome falls out of the plane. Dumytru looks on in shock.

dumytru: "You... you traitor! How could you?! I thought we had something..."PhoenixTears: "I knew it! I knew this was going to happen! I never should have let you convince me!"Raiden: "...you knew Yuritome would turn into a zombie and steal a parachute after our plane began to crash?"PhoenixTears: "Well, uh... yeah. Yeah, I totally did. Hrmph."blurfbreg: "Oh, who cares? We're crashing and we need to hand out the rest of these parachutes!"KaitoRizu: "Er, well, there were only enough for the living people. We're down one now. That's why he's a traitor."cinnamoroll: "If only someone had died, which they didn't, then we'd still have a spare!"Henry Gordan: "So, someone doesn't get a parachute..."

You're not 100% certain, but you recall hearing in science class in school that people who didn't wear parachutes when jumping out of planes tended to die. Sometimes they bounce though, and just break a lot of bones in their body. Neither one sounds very good to you.

Time to choose who the unlucky person is.

Day 2 Begins

Last edited by Akonyl on May 28th, 2017, 8:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

After a round of bickering where everyone tried to point out the reason why anyone except themselves should be the one to die, the group comes to a conclusion. The daredevil gets to be...

Spoiler:

Abs.: 2MoonRavenshinichi'sapprentice

blurfbreg: 1Jecka

Conia: 1Abs.

Henry Gordan: 1cinnamoroll

Jecka: 1Kleene Onigiri

KaitoRizu: 1PhoenixTears

Kamite: 1Conia

Memesu: 1KaitoRizu

MoonRaven: 1Raiden

shinichi'sapprentice: 1Kamite

Stopwatch: 1Memesu

Abs.! Everyone is quite impressed at the voting distribution. However, Abs. is not amused.

Abs.: "No! You can't do this to me! Give me that parachute!"MoonRaven: "Now now, someone's gotta draw the short straw."shinichi'sapprentice: "Too bad, so sad. Bye!"

MoonRaven and shinichi'sapprentice put on fake smiles as they push Abs. from the plane, to her likely imminent demise. Everyone has a quick moment of silence to pretend like they're sad at the loss of Abs., but quickly regain their composure as they prepare to leave the plane. One person has bigger worries, though...

: "Hey! Who ate my sandwich?!?"

Huh? You're not quite sure what they're talking about, but you don't really care either, because you have bigger problems at the moment. Everyone just shrugs and rolls their eyes as they don their parachutes and jump out of the plane in quick succession. Not too long after when everyone's a safe distance away, the plane explodes in mid-air for no good reason.

As they fall, dumytru shouts to the group above the roaring of the wind.

dumytru: "Hey, look at the ground! What is that?"MoonRaven: "It looks like a forest!"Butler: "More accurately, it's a jungle! This is the jungle that lies on the border of Akonyland!"KaitoRizu: "Oh yeah? I didn't know there was one! What's it called?"Butler: "The Jungle of Giant Snakes!"Stopwatch: "That sounds terrible! Why didn't you warn us?"Butler: "Don't worry! The snakes haven't lived here in ages, they were hunted until they were forced to retreat into caves! And they're actually extinct now, someone killed the last one a few years ago!"Stopwatch: "I still don't like it!"

Miraculously, everyone lands in roughly the same spot, in a clearing that allows them to land easily without having their parachutes become tangled in the trees. Abs.'s body is nearby, and from the marks on the ground, you can tell that she didn't die immediately, bounced a few times, broke her bones each time, and finally succumbed to her injuries in a gruesome and painful manner. Near each landing spot, a mangled costume can be seen, and you piece together that Abs. (Yukiko) must have frantically tried to use her discarded costumes to soften the blows on her breaking bones. It was to no avail, as the crumpled mass of body clearly shows.

Also next to the body, a small piece of paper can be seen:

Spoiler: Will

I'm Eisuke! D:

Looking at the gruesome scene kind of makes you hungry.

Jecka: "Geez, anyone else feeling hungry? I haven't eaten anything in a while."Raiden: "Yeah, and all our food was on the plane...": "I dunno, I'm fine. I just had a sandwich. It was pretty good."Butler: "Looks like we'll have to forage for food, then! There's a lot to eat in a jungle, so we should look around for some stuff that looks edible. Oh look, some berries!"Kleene Onigiri: "Wait a second. Even if there's no giant snakes, shouldn't there be other..."

As Kleene says it, a deep growling can be heard from the bushes.

Kleene Onigiri: "...animals?"Butler: "Oh, right. I forgot that the giant snakes of this forest used to prey on all the wolves. With the snakes gone, the wolf population has become a bit large and unopposed, and they don't really fear anything anymore. We should probably just run."

The butler immediately takes off running in one direction, and shouts over his shoulder to the group. "You might want to follow me! And don't fall behind, for obvious reasons!"

Night 3 (Welcome to the Jungle) Begins

As the group runs from the pack of ravenous and downright mean-looking wolves, they come across a break in the trees, and a gorge running through the jungle. A single fallen tree trunk conveniently spans the gorge, which the butler quickly jumps on, beckoning the rest of the group to follow. The group quickly crosses the tree to the other side of the gorge, and helps the butler push the tree trunk off their side of the gorge, causing the tree to fall in, taking a few unfortunate wolves with it into the depths. The rest of the pack snarls, but with no way to cross the gorge, gives up on their meal. It looks like you've all avoided being eaten by wolves!

Stopwatch: "Whew, we're saved!"Jecka: "That was a close one... I could've sworn someone was gonna die there!"blurfbreg: "Yeah, I thought I was a goner there!"dumytru: "Looks like we live to see another day!"

Butler: "Well, I guess we can't hold it off forever. We need to forage, so let's try that again! Let's split up to cover more ground, if we forage faster we're less likely to run into anything like that again. And if we do, I don't think we can get away so easily, so time is of the essence here. Off we go!"

The group splits up to forage, and while you find a few berries that look edible, it isn't too much longer before you hear a scream from the jungle. Well, there goes that plan. You run to the source of the scream to find out what's wrong, only to find the rest of the group standing there horrified, as you see Yuritome (Zombie) standing over the corpse of Henry Gordan (Jodie), gnawing on her brain.

Grabbing whatever rocks and sticks are nearby as weapons, you descend on the zombie with everyone else, bludgeoning it to a finely suited pulp. Just to make sure, you bludgeon Henrodie too. So ends the reign of the zombie. You walk back to the gorge to be in a safe and open area, and share your discovery with everyone else.

Oddly enough, it looks like everyone else had the same idea. Every single person in the group brought back berries, and every berry looks the same.

Kleene Onigiri: "Really? Only berries? Isn't there anything else here that looked edible?"PhoenixTears: "Hey, don't look at me, you brought berries too."shinichi'sapprentice: "Well, no reason to share if we all have the same thing, I guess."

A lightbulb goes off in the butler's head as an expression of shocked amusement appears on his face. "Oh, that's right! I almost forgot, how silly of me. It's worth mentioning that this jungle actually has two species of berry that grow in it commonly, the Akodelithious and the Akodeathicious. It should go without saying, but one's deadly delicious, and the other one's deliciously deadly. It'll make you fall over instantly, writhing in pain until your demise. The funny thing is, they both look exactly the same! The only way to tell is that one grows on the land predominantly westward of the Bars River, while the other grows on the eastward side. Unfortunately this river has a lot of twists and turns, so I don't actually know which side we're on!"

Memesu: "Well that's fantastic. So how do we find out if these ones are okay?"Kamite: "We could just have someone..."KaitoRizu: "...taste test?"

...but who?

Day 3 Begins

Last edited by Akonyl on May 28th, 2017, 8:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Clutching his throat, Raiden falls to the ground, gasping for air. It's rather pathetic. He clutches and claws at his throat so much that his face seems to... deform? It's not long until he rips his own face off, revealing that "he" is actually Raiden (Vermouth-Camel)! As she writhes on the ground, a piece of paper falls out of her pocket, which Kamite reads:

Spoiler: Raimouth's Will

Memesu: "Very skillfully read, Kamite. Almost like I could see pictures inside my head."dumytru: "I don't like the zombie part, should we take care of her too?"Kleene Onigiri: "It looks painful... how long until she dies?"Butler: "Oh, maybe, five hours? It'll be a while, but it's certain death, so we may as well leave her behind. If she turns into a zombie it'll take a while regardless, and we'll be out of her range by the time she turns. I know which side of the river we're on now, so we should go... that way! Come along, now!"

cinnamoroll: "I'm still hungry, though..."Butler: "Oh, I picked out some berries from the other side of the river before the wolves chased us! It's not much, but it should tide us over until we reach the town. And they're from the other side of the river, so they're not poisonous. Delicious Akodeathicious berries. They're deadly delicious."???: "Hold it! You hid this food for yourself?!"Butler: "Well, no, there were wolves..."???: "You're under arrest!"Butler: "Ridiculous. Who said that was a crime? Take a few phases to cool your head and stop wrongfully trying to arrest people."???: "Awww..."Kamite: "Well anyway... you mentioned a town, how far away is that?"Butler: "Maybe 10 hours?"Stopwatch: "Are you serious? We'll be walking all day? It'll be night by then!"Butler: "Now now, nobody likes a complainer."Conia: "Yeah! Don't cry about minor stuff like that!"

Your group continues your trek, quickly extinguishing the few Akodeathicious berries the butler had grabbed. You're not sure how you'd explain the taste, aside from "deadly delicious", so you feel like you understand the butler's choice of words a little more now. As night falls, you reach the town, which is so brilliantly lit by a multitude of streetlights that it hardly seems like night at all, despite not a soul being around. The new-looking streetlights stand in stark contrast to the overgrowth that's seemingly taking over the uninhabited town.

The butler scratches his head. "Hm, I don't remember most of these being here. Weird. Well, it certainly shows that the power plant must be active in full force, if you want to stop the cloning machine's operation we'll need to scale Mount Akonylest to get there. It's a long uphill trek, so we might want to find something else to take us there. Maybe there's a vehicle around here somewhere we can use, I doubt they were all destroyed..."

The butler turns to the group and shoos everyone away. "Now now, time to split up! No time to waste, let's find a car or something!"

You're not sure why you listen to his obviously dangerous command, when you know how this is probably gonna end. But there's something exciting about it...

Night 4 Begins

You snoop around the extremely well-lit town, to no avail. It looks like there's nothing usable (aside from some who-knows-how-old crackers that you found and decided to munch on), but then you hear a voice shout, so you decide to check over there a bit. You find Kleene Onigiri, next to a bus.

Kleene Onigiri: "Check this out! It's a bus! And it looks like it's in working condition."Butler: "Interesting. I've never seen a bus like this before."blurfbreg: "Isn't that a bit sketchy then?"cinnamoroll: "You're worrying too much, what bad's ever happened on a bus?"MoonRaven: "There was that one movie seri--"KaitoRizu: "Yeah I guss you're right, nothing at all."Butler: "Well then everyone, let's check it out."

The group boards the bus, noting that it's very new, but kind of drab looking, and there's a weird lack of a steering wheel. As you're checking out the inside of the bus, a voice speaks up from a speaker at the front.

The few people left outside quickly clamber into the bus as its engine revs up and it begins its drive. You've had a long day, and this looks like it'll be a long drive, so you want to get a bit of shut-eye. But is that really safe?

Conia: "I really wanna get some rest, but considering what's happening, I don't know if I can trust you all with a nap..."Butler: "Haha! Oh, right, the violence?"Bus Voice: "Warning: Violence is prohibited while in transit. All attempts will be met with punishment."Butler: "Oh, there you go! Well, I'll stay up to keep an eye out anyway. Sleep tight, everybody!"

You don't put much more thought into it, but you decide to hit the hay anyway. As you wake up, you can see the quickly approaching power plant against the sunrise. You quickly glance around the bus, and it looks like everyone who got on is still here, so everything's good! Finally, the bus stops at the power plant and everybody gets out.

The butler looks at the power plant's doors with a frown. "Well, it looks like it's been welded shut. It's certainly active, but without a way to get inside, we'll just have to press on and disable the cloning machine directly. Back on the bus!"

He gets back on the bus, ready to say the next destination. However, the bus is less cooperative this time around.

Bus Voice: "Fuel is expended. Please insert new fuel to continue."Butler: "The fuel's all gone? This shouldn't be anywhere near a whole tank!"Bus Voice: "Fuel utilized by Model-A is single burn. Please insert a new fuel unit in the hatch in the rear to continue."Butler: "Well, that's no good."

The butler steps off the bus and walks around to the back, where a giant hatch is found. Far too large for a normal gas cap. As he unlocks the hatch and swings it open, a pile of bones tumbles out from a very human-shaped indentation.

Stopwatch: "Hey! Those are shinichi'sapprentice's bones!"PhoenixTears: "You're right! I'd recognize those bones anywhere!"Yurikochan: "Definitely shinichi'sapprentice's bones."dumytru: "Does this mean shinichi'sapprentice got put in before we even got on the bus?"KaitoRizu: "How didn't we notice the number of people on the bus was wrong?"cinnamoroll: "I guess we're all just really bad at counting, huh?"Memesu: "Geez, is my face red! Haha!"

Someone tries to arrest the pile of bones for not being enough fuel, but the arrest attempt fails for obvious reasons. Everyone has a good laugh.

"Well," coughs the butler, "it's very tragic. But I mean... we're out of fuel... and we still have to get to the castle... so you know..."

You know.

Day 4 Begins

Last edited by Akonyl on May 28th, 2017, 8:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Kleene Onigiri (Takagi) falls over, writhing in pain. Looks like someone must have had a berry pocketed, and fed it to him in the confusion! A paper also falls out of his pocket:

Spoiler: Kleta Onikagi's Will

This time I won't be alone in this round as a townie! That's why I PMed everyone, EVERYONE! MUHAHAHAHA! (I'm probably dead Night 1)

Fun! Everyone writes back and even the notorious paranoid players want to ally! Tho that makes me paranoid in return XD

I stake-outed Jecka on N1 and Stoppy N2. There were some actions done to them and for N1 I even managed to get the right person for the Follow up! So I know Kamites ability and told Kamite about it. Of course Kamite got paranoid because of that For day 1 no one had any leads sadly. So I random voted Rizu.

Something strange happened on N2 which made me suspicious of Kamite. But it's not a real lead. Basically Kamite forgot/didn't send in their action, but updated their will? Maybe it was also mistake of course.

Since I allied everyone, I also asked most people for an action swap.Following people know, that I have "Stake-out/observe":RizuStoppyBlurfKamiteDumytruSA

So the chance of me getting APTXed is kind of high.

Yuriko knows my role. She trusted me after the N2 attack and told me her role first, so I told her mine in return. Yuriko is most likely town.

N3: Stake-out on Rizu.

Day 3: SA now knows that I can SO too. There was a misunderstanding but now we allied! Yay!!If my source is correct, Raiden lied about something, so I voted him.

People I trust a lot:YurikoSADumytruRizuKamite

People I trust:Stoppy

During Night 3 I tried to arrest stoppy for the Night 1 kill and got suspended.

The death gives Conia a great idea.

Conia: "H-hey! If he's dying anyway, why not strap him in? We don't need to do th--"

The bus's speaker quickly interjects. "The potential fuel cell known as Kleta Onikagi already shows signs of damage, due to internal poison damage. This action will not be punished because the vehicle is currently not in transit, however Life Engine technology requires life to be in its best shape before extraction, for maximum effectiveness. The fuel cell will not be accepted."

"Well, you heard it," cinnamoroll shrugs, "you're our best bet."

"You can't do this to me!" Conia protests, "Don't you know who I am?! I'm Eisuke! I'm Eisukeeeeeeee...!"

The protests of Conia (Anokata-Eisuke) fall on deaf ears as the door is closed. A piece of paper falls from his pocket as the door is shut:

Spoiler: Conokatuke's Will

* I clamed Interrogation to Kleene and Moon, they never asked for confirmation on my ability, how rude!

You take the warning to heart, and eventually the bus arrives in front of the castle. While it doesn't look like anyone's lived in it for centuries, you can't help but feel like something's stirring inside. As you enter, you're greeted by a giant pit just beyond the door.

cinnamoroll: "Let me guess. We have to jump down there, and someone's gonna die, right?"Stopwatch: "Ooh, ooh! Maybe there's spikes... or acid!"blurfbreg: "Last one to jump's a rotten egg!"Butler: "Whoa whoa, now. Hold up. While you're partially right, don't be too hasty. There's a staircase into the basement over there."

The butler points to a door under the foyer staircase, and everyone gives a slightly disappointed sigh as they enter the door and walk down the staircase inside, into the basement. Stopwatch was right though, on one side of the room they entered there are not only spikes, but also acid!

Butler: "You know, in Akonyland, this room is known as the store."PhoenixTears: "Why? I can't imagine you can store anything down here, it's more like a dungeon..."Butler: "Well, we call it that because..."

The butler walks to the edge of the room, and picks up an old skull sitting in some acid. It looks like the skull of a small child.

Butler: "It's called the store becase... CTUsuhiko went here and then never came back!"

The butler shakes the skull a bit, while making an expectant face like he just made a funny joke that he wants you to laugh at. You're not quite sure about it, though.

MoonRaven: "...I don't get it."dumytru: "Yeah, I'm drawing a blank."Yurikochan: "Did you just make a joke about a dead child?"Butler: "Well, yes. I've been holding onto that joke for quite a while, too."Yurikochan: "Okay, just checking."

"Well, enough of that," the butler says, unceremoniously dropping the skull onto the ground, "our destination is just up ahead. There's a secret passage behind the wall here, which opens into a large complex. It's basically a nuclear bomb shelter, but it also contains the cloning machine. You know, just to make sure new clones can always be made, no matter what happens. With the new technology I've seen here though, someone's gotta be alive in there already. Let's proceed with caution, shall we?"

The butler walks to the opposite wall, where he pushes in a brick, causing the room to rumble as the wall opens, revealing a dark passageway. The group slowly enters, nobody wanting to be the person in the front of the group. You get the feeling something bad would happen if you were in front. Nevertheless, everyone walks into the darkness, which you can only tell is a very long hallway from the faint glow of the large televisions that line each wall. Through the heavy static on all of them, you're able to vaguely make out some pictures, where each television is showing a different scene. One has a pirate ship, one looks like Disney World, another a casino, and they all look like there's a lot of bodies...

There's something unsettling about the televisions (probably the bodies), but you try not to think about it, or what might be lurking in the dark. Which you just thought about, right there in that sentence. Whoops.

Night 5 Begins

As you continue walking down the hallway, you begin counting the televisions, curious as to how many of them there are. There's quite a lot of them, but as you reach the end of the televisions, you see the hallway end and open into what looks like a large room, though too dark to really tell. In total, on each wall of the hallway, there were thirty-five televisions, seventy in all. You wonder what they could all be for, when a voice echoes throughout the chamber.

"Once upon a time..." it begins, "there was a--"

"Oh no!" the butler shouts, "Watch out, it sounds like an evil monologue! I hate those!"

The voice pauses. "Once upon a time," it continues, "there was a man. A man named Akonyl. If there was one quality that could be used to describe him, it would have to be his intense, shameless hatred of bees. So great was this hate that he drew up plans for a doomsday device, and created a cloning machine containing his thoughts, so that after his death his clones could be created and imprinted with his will, in order to carry on and have the bees destroyed. But something unexpected happened. All of a sudden, a catastrophe struck Akonyland, wiping out every last clone. The machine saw this failure, and didn't know how to proceed. Eventually it decided that perhaps Akonyl himself wasn't enough. Maybe the clones needed to intermingle, have children, and diversify their DNA. And so the machine made these new clones, and watched their progress. But even then, with two being arrested and the rest, including their children, dead, the batch was yet another failure."

The butler whispers to the group. "Hey! I think one of those prisoners he's talking about was me! Thanks for getting me out, by the way."

The voice continues its rambling, not hearing the butler's interruption. "Clearly, something was wrong. The machine decided it needed to research a bit, to find out why these clones kept dying. In the end, it found seventy historical events, two even occurring here, which gave it its answer. Large slaughters for no reason other than the joy of killing, and the joy of a "fun" death. This was the answer. The driving factor behind all biological life. The natural endpoint of biological lifeforms is death, and so these groups of people joined these "games" in order to speed up their race to that final goal. Groups of people like you."

Suddenly and dramatically, all of the lights in the room turn on, temporarily blinding you! Ow, your eyes! At the far end of the room you can see someone sitting in a chair, but something looks a bit off about them.

"Of course, Akonyl was no different. He was just a man. He directed his desires towards only bees, but in the end, he was as imperfect and biological as the rest of the humans. And so the machine made me. Akonyl, not as flesh, but as machine. I am AKO.B.O.: Akonyl as a Binary Organism. But you can just call me Akobo, if you want. Perfect, mechanical, immortal. This time will not be a failure, I will finally succeed in carrying out Akonyl's will. But as we learned, his deepest desire wasn't just to kill bees... no, that was just a manifestation of humanity's desire for a fun death, so I've decided I'll be killing all humans too, to fulfill his real will. But of course, only in a fun manner. That extends to you too, obviously, I can't exactly have you all ruining my plans and leaving alive, but I'm certainly not going to be mean about it. In fact, I've ran many simulations, mini versions of those big murdery events, quite a lot of them actually, so I know how this goes, and how you enjoy it the most. Let's have some fun, group number seventy-one."

The shiny metal evil guy who's been monologuing at you this whole time gets out of his chair. He lifts his right hand and a claw descends from the ceiling, grabbing something out of his hand. The claw moves along a track and approaches the group, where it drops a gun in the middle, right in front of you. While you feel like you probably shouldn't obey his command, something inside you tells you that you need to. Nobody's died yet, but you feel like if you don't obey, someone else will probably do it instead.

"Oh right," he pauses, "how does this go again? I think I'm supposed to say...

"Day 5 Begins"

Last edited by Akonyl on May 28th, 2017, 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Everybody immediately dives for the gun, and a scuffle ensues. Though eventually they realize that they all basically want to point it at one person...

Spoiler:

Memesu: 7cinnamorolldumytruJeckaKaitoRizuKamiteStopwatchYurikochan

dumytru: 1blurfbreg

...Memesu.

Memesu: "Hahaha. So this is how it ends?"Yurikochan: "Yep, looks like it's the end of the road for you. We won't let you sabotage this mission."Memesu: "Are you sure about that?"Kamite: "Yeah. We're gonna snuff out you infiltrators and do what we came to do!"Memesu: "Really now? Good luck with that..."

Memesu starts laughing as Yurikochan pulls the trigger. Memesu (Kir)'s body slumps to the ground. But even in death, she has an odd smile on her face...

Everybody starts to celebrate over the death, but PhoenixTears looks a bit sad.

PhoenixTears: "But I wanted to shoot the gun."Akobo: "Only one person gets to shoot the gun."PhoenixTears: "I know! But I wanted to do it."dumytru: "Come on, PT, you're harshing our joy over Kiremesu's death."PhoenixTears: "But..."???: "Alright, that's it! PhoenixTears, you're under arrest for being a buzzkill!"PhoenixTears: "Aw, man..."

Although it looks like PhoenixTears isn't the only one not having fun! The group looks at MoonRaven, wondering if she's alright, due to the worrying puzzled expression she has on her face.

MoonRaven: "...blueberries?"

Clearly the answer is that she is not alright, as MoonRaven (Yoko) promptly falls over, obviously poisoned.

blurfbreg: "Where would a berry even come from, down here?"Stopwatch: "Beats me. Maybe it was given to her when we all jumped for the gun?"blurfbreg: "I guess so."

Quite a lot seems to be happening, bad things, like people dying. Akobo said that you wanted this, but you really think that dying actually kind of sucks. With everyone in agreement, the group decides to raise their objections.

KaitoRizu: "Hey robot!"Akobo: "Yeah?"KaitoRizu: "I think you're wrong!"Butler: "Well, Akobo is a dumb bot."KaitoRizu: "I actually like living! I like it quite a lot, actually! So why do we have to do this? Can't you just leave us alone?"

Akobo scratches his head, even though as a robot he totally doesn't need to. "Really? Is that what you actually believe? Hold on a second..."

He lifts his left arm and appears to push buttons on it with his right hand. As he does, all the televisions in the room switch to a single scene. It looks like it's a video of your group standing outside the power plant, when you were deciding who to use as fuel. Is this a surveillance camera recording? Then you hear people speaking on the video...

Yurikochan wrote:Why are so many people suiciding :x

KaitoRizu wrote:It's not suicide it's... natural? I don't know XD

Even with only the audio, you can seemingly even see the emotions and facial expressions they had at the time, like they were in their speech itself. Odd how that works.

Akobo rolls his robotic eyes as he bring up another scene. This time, it's the group in the jungle, when deciding who got to taste test the poisonous berries.

Kleene Onigiri wrote:Lynch me this phase \o/

Kleene Onigiri wrote:Tho I want to get lynched :V

Akobo: "Yeah? What about that one?"Jecka: "K-Kleta was just eccentric, okay? Besides, wait, how did you even get that video? Are there surveillance cameras in the jungle too?"Akobo: "Of course. I've been watching you the whole time, ever since you've entered Akonyland. I was even keeping tabs on your movements when you got the butler out of prison."cinnamoroll: "Before we were even in the country? Did you know we were coming?"Akobo: "Well, yeah. After all, I increased the power output of the power plant to make sure someone would notice and send people here. I even made that bus for you, just to make sure it was easy for you to get here."Stopwatch: "But why? If we're just going to stop you, why lure us in here?"

"Well," Akobo explains, "I may as well tell you, since it's the end for you anyway. The doomsday device, meant to kill all of bee-kind, required a specimen of a living bee in order to work. It would analyze the bee it was holding, and then exterminate all matching life on the planet. So what if it was modified, so that it didn't just accept bee specimens? That's not really an actual question, by the way, because I know the answer. I modified the device to accept all specimens, including humans, and long story short, I'm gonna use it to murder everyone. To make it work though, I needed a human specimen, so I called for delivery."

Kamite: "Wait, why not just make an Akonyl clone and use that?"Akobo: "Nah, wouldn't work. It's a long explanation I'm sure you don't care about, but clones don't work, and humans are fine, but when you combine the two, like in the second batch of clones that had children..."

The crane drops down from the ceiling, snatching up the butler.

Akobo: "...it can kill a lot of other stuff, too! Thanks for coming, but I don't need you anymore. I'll be taking the butler and using him to exterminate all of humanity, and more, so just sit tight and you'll get your death too."Butler: "Aaaahhhh! Help me! Follow the sound of my voice! Aaaaaahhhhhh...!"

Akobo and the crane holding the butler disappear into the darkness, as the butler's sad and honestly kind of pathetic screaming echoes through the chambers. You know Akobo told you to sit tight, but this time you figure you probably shouldn't listen to his orders. Into the darkness! It's time to save the world!

Night 6 Begins

You follow the twists and turns of the maze-like underground, listening to the butler's whiny screams. Maybe if you'd been here longer, you'd have been forced to play some murderous games in those rooms. Finally you see a light in the distance, and you check to make sure everyone's ready.

blurfbreg: "Everyone ready?"dumytru: "Ready as ever!"Stopwatch: "All good here."cinnamoroll: "Not really... someone stabbed me while we were running, I think I'm about to di--"

Interrupted by her own death, cinnamoroll (Haibara) collapses onto the ground, with yet another piece of paper showing her will:

Spoiler: cinnabara's Will!

If you're reading this, it means I'm dead, I'll leave this report so you can make good use of the information I gathered:

On the first night of this journey I just quietly watched everyone do their thing.In the morning, I followed Kleene around, just to make sure she's not evil. She seems fine.I voted randomly.Day two, I could smell someone wearing a nice new perfume, it ended up being kamite. It smells like pizza or something (^^')It was hard trying to choose the one who wouldn't get a parachute, so I just picked a random name.Third day a bunch of people decided to have a party without me, so I hung out with Raiden, who wasn't invited either, but for reasons I now know! He ended up being part of people those people who dress in black D:I've made new allies.A lead! I went along with my allies and voted Conia, which ended in success! \o/I haven't seen Memesu being very active, I got suspicious, so I snuck around her to see what she was up to during the day. She seems ok, but who knows.

For now, I fully trust SA, he even knows my role. T_TI trust Yuriko, she knows my role.Dumy now knows my role too, I already trusted him, and a bunch of townies seem to trust him too.I've also been speaking to Stop and Rizu, I trust them to be town.

Good luck!

Jecka: "Well that's sad, but we have to keep going!"Yurikochan: "I guess so, no time to waste. Not like she was actually an agent anyway, she's a kid, we just let her tag along because she wanted to."KaitoRizu: "Doesn't that actually make it even worse?"Yurikochan: "Shhhh."

The group finally comes to the room, where Akobo is standing in front of a giant contraption. It's a rather menacing looking contraption, containing no less than seven mysterious crystals, and one large beebutler in a glass chamber. It might even be a young queen, whatever you would call that. All the crystals seem to be aligned towards the ceiling. Hearing you run into the room, Akobo turns towards the group.

Akobo: "I already turned it on, it's only a matter of time until it finishes charging! You're too slow!"dumytru: "Well damn, I guess that's that then. Time to brush up my will, a bit."Butler: "It's fine! It takes a conveniently long time to charge up, just get me outta here!"Akobo: "Hey! Don't tell them that, that's against the rules!"Kamite: "Really?"Akobo: "Okay, well, no. But I still won't let you do it! You won't get past me!"

You hear a sound like an engine revving up as Akobo begins to shake slightly. His right arm suddenly turns into a blade, as his eyes begin to glow.

However, as you get ready to forcefully throw her into the path of the robot (who seems to be patiently waiting for your choice), blurfbreg (Akemi) holds out her hand.

"I...", she cries, "...have killed my sister. I did it to save her from one monster, but in the end, I guess she was just killed by another, huh. I'm such a fool... I can never make it right, but I know how offer up what little repentance I can."

Jecka (Araide) attempts to strike a cool pose as she nods solemnly before delivering a Totally Super Cool And Suave Line. "Hmm... I've healed many people in my time, but the pain of killing one's own sister... I'm afraid that some wounds can never be healed."

As Jeckaide is striking the pose, KaitoRizu notices a piece of paper taped to Jeckaide's back that says "I totally killed cinnabara on Night 6". Despite Akembreg's confession, Jecka is arrested. That'll teach him to prematurely do a cool pose.

"Yeah..." Akembreg sighs, smiling painfully, as she walks over to PhoenixTears (Tequila) and hands him two pieces of paper. "I want you to have these. I know that their recipients aren't around anymore, but still... I'd like someone to know how I felt. I know that the Noir Collective was just using me too, but really, I would have liked to see this mission through to the end, after all I sacrificed for it... everything I lost. At least one of us gets to, yeah?"

"Yeah..." replies Phoequila, reading the pieces of paper:

*Note: Read on a computer screen to achieve full effect.

Spoiler: To: Miyano Shiho

Dear Shiho,

On the fifth nightof thismission, dread seeps through the core of my being. I fear I may not see you again. Iwrite this in the hope that the others in the organization may bring my last thoughtsto youshould I not return.The boss would see this as a small favour to the loyalty our parents have shown totheorganization.

The boss said this would be my last assignment. The boss said the mission was going to be quick and easy. It isanything but. They tell me that all I have to do is infiltrate Akonyland, find out what the butler knows aboutRenaldo Blue, Akonyland, and the Bee Swarms, find the schematics of the secret weapon and the Original'scloning machine, and return home with the information. It was supposed to be a simple infiltration mission. Theboss said the results of the mission can help advance the immortality project our parents started. We could havegiven enough information that the organization no longer wants to keep us around. More importantly, theorganization would not want to keep you any more.

The boss was wrong; the mission was far from simple. I never expected that one of us think a piece ofcardboard is good enough as official ID. I never expected the dead to come to life, but I'm sure you'd love tosee it. I never expected the land to allow deliciously deadly AND deadly delicious berries so close to one another(though I'm glad to be rid of that woman). Even worse, I never expected this mission to involve killing so manyinnocent people who have no role with the organization. I can't bear the thought of finding you amongst thiscrowd, drafted unawares to the dark deeds that I will eventually bring upon you. They must have kept most ofthe actual mission details from me to make me accept.

Now that most of my comrades have fallen, I fear the worst will come to bear upon me. I am wholly convincedthat our organization cannot control this power. The hatred and rage of one man has warped Akonyland, and willbe our ruin should we attempt to wrest control of it. Now thatthismachine has all it requires for its machinations,I'm afraid I cannot save even you. Alas, I'm afraid that myhand maybe the instrument of your demise.

When you hear these words, run as far away as you can fromtheorganization. Do not look for me in Akonyland.I can no longer guarantee your safety. If you can, find Moroboshi Dai. You may not know him, but he'll know you.He's indebted to me in so many ways (and I him), but he's sure to help.

With all my love,Akemi

Spoiler: To: Moroboshi Dai

Dear Dai-kun,

I can't go on. This accursed place. I can bear it no longer. I've finally done the unthinkable. I've killed my ownsister. With my own hands. Stabbing her in the heart. Have you ever seen the face of someone you killed? Notthrough a scope, like all your jobs, but right in front of them. It's horrifying. Although she looks exactly like mysister many years ago when she was in elementary school, I have no doubt that this is her. I can recognize thatadorable face anytime, anywhere, even after all these years. Dai-kun, am I even human? Can I stand amonghumanity and proclaim I'm better than this monstrous creation of Akonyland?

I know you'll understand though. You were with me originally because you wished to, but because you had to.For that short while, you were my dream, my inspiration, my hope. Even though we were star-crossed, we werebound by circumstances. For that short while, I knew where I was going. I knew who I wanted to be.

Now? I can barely stand it. After I stabbed her, I had a spark of terrible insight. I was asked to kill a man on thistrip. He... was in the way of our mission. The thing was... he had your posture. He had your cologne. He hintedat a fondness for rye. The way he speaks, I can almost imagine you in his place. Even though he wore thatmask to cover his face whenever I'm nearby, his stoic posture was unmistakable. His eyes gaze into me thesame way you did. I nearly swooned the first time I saw him. I stuffed the man into a nearby bus that strangelyconverted organic matter to fuel. Last night, I checked those bones. They really do match your height. Theskull reveals the face I adore... adored.

Did the boss also know that all those I love are tasked to the mission in Akonyland? No matter. I have no reasonto live. I'll let myself die in this place. I'll have the cold comfort that I don't have to end my life myself.Machinations beyond the imagination of the organization has already taken place, and it'll end my life. The othersin Akonyland wouldn't look kindly upon me for my terrible deeds. If they wouldn't do it, I have my sister's workon me. I have seen what it does to others. The process looks painful, but I know that I deserved this pain afterall I have done.

I'll be with Shiho soon. I'll be with my parents soon. And I'll be with you soon.

Akemi

Akembreg steels herself and runs straight into Akobo, getting skewered almost instantly. Stopwatch (Amuro) shakes his head in awe.

Amuwatch: "I thought I had frightened her, but she still goes out with such determination. It's sad, the kind of things this place made us all do... she could have been quite something."

As Akobo takes his time incinerating the body with his heat vision, the group runs to the doomsday device and opens it, freeing the butler. Even with nothing inside, the device still seems to be charging.

Yuriko: "What do we do?"Butler: "Um, uh... well, it destroys anything like what you put in it, right?"Kamite: "Yeah, I remember him saying that."Butler: "So what if we put Akobo in there? It might just destroy him, and all the Akonyland tech!"Stopwatch: "It's worth a try, but how would we get him in there?"Kamite: "Don't worry, I've got this."

Akobo finishes incinerating Akembreg's corpse and rushes the group for some razor arm slice-and-dice action. Unfortunately, Kamite (Sera)'s sweet martial arts skills prove a little too much for the robot, and she manages to (carefully) grab Akobo's razor arm without getting cut, judo throwing him into the machine!

Akobo: "You... how can you do this?! You inferior organisms! I'm immortal! You can't win!"

From inside the machine, Akobo shoots his heat vision at the group, melting through part of the door and hitting the butler in the chest. It's all for naught though, as the machine quickly reaches full charge, releasing a blinding flash of light. When the light dissipates, it seems that all the lights in the room are off.

Butler: "Looks like... we did it. All the tech in here is fried now... should be including the cloning machine and doomsday device. It probably fried itself before it could do any damage to the rest of the world."

The gasping voice worries dumytru (Conan), who runs to the butler's voice.

Conatru: "Hey! Are you alright?!"Butler: "I'm afraid not, looks like this is the end for me. Don't think Jeckaide's healing would save me now."Jeckaide: "Not to mention, my hands are literally tied, now that I'm arrested."Butler: "But hey... the machine's destroyed, so maybe it's time for me to go as well. No More Akos..."Conatru: "Um, but... what about Renaldo? Isn't he still in jail?"

Silence fills the room.

Butler: "Dammit... and just when I got to say the round's title..."

The butler gasps as he passes away. Always the leader type, Yurikochan (James) speaks up first. "Well, now that that's all over... how do we get out of here?"

"No need to worry," KaitoRizu (Yamato) scoffs, "when you only have one eye like I do, you learn to rely on your other senses a bit more. I remember the way back. Come on."

It takes quite some time to get out of the castle (you're pretty sure Kaitamato got lost a few times in the darkness), but when you do, you see a convoy of Jeeps approaching. As it stops, you see someone get out and walk towards you. It's the smoking lady who first gave you the assignment.

Smoking Lady: "Looks like we made it in time. Sorry to keep the details from you, but even though we needed an advance squad to make sure to take care of things quickly, we still needed a main convoy to follow to take care of the cleanup."Jamesiko: "Hmm... I guess that makes sense."Smoking Lady: "Where are the rest?"Seramite: "All dead... and this one here's an infiltrator. We managed to take him alive. We're pretty sure this guy's an infiltrator too, but we're not sure."Kaitamato: "Yeah, too bad the cloning machine and superweapon were busted. Maybe for the best, though."Smoking Lady: "I see... we'll take care of those infiltrators, and the technology should still be good for analysis. You all go ahead on your own, we've got an extra Jeep for you. Report back to HQ."

The smoking lady gestures and two agents grab Phoequila and Jeckaide, taking them off somewhere as Jeckaide continues to plead his innocence. The rest of the crew gets in an empty Jeep and drives off. As they prepare to leave, it's almost like the other agents are snickering...

It's a long drive, with Kaitamato, Jamesiko, Amuwatch and Seramite taking turns driving (Conatru is prohibited from driving because he's a kid and he's not even a real agent anyway), but eventually after a few days you make it back to the HQ of your unnammed organization (after dropping Conatru and Seramite back off at their homes). As the remaining three enter though, it looks like things are a lot busier than normal at HQ. Jamesiko walks up to someone to ask what's going on.

"What?!" the agent replies in shock, "you don't know? You been on vacation or something? Alright, listen to this. You know how some of us have been monitoring the disputes in Akonyland recently? Well, a few days back, there was a prison riot at a prison holding a person of interest in that case, the former butler of the Akonyland estate. He managed to escape. In the investigation into the riot's causes, we found out something pretty crazy. You know that raid on the Noir Collective a month or so ago? We were afraid that some of their agents may have infiltrated our organization since then, but it seems like it was even worse than that. The boss of the Noir Collective, yeah the boss-lady herself, managed to use the opportunity to sneak in here, and task a bunch of idiots into going on some weird mystery mission into Akonyland. God knows what they got up to in there. Apparently she gave 'em all individual briefings and told them to keep it secret so nobody'd talk about it and realize the whole thing was bunk. Sent some of her own agents in to oversee it too, and make our agents think the Collective was actually trying to oppose them, when they were actually just being played like fiddles. Wonder if they found anything in there... like maybe a lost treasure? Or maybe some kinda doomsday weapon? Wouldn't that be a fine mess. But anyway, seriously man, where've you been all this time, you go on vacation?"

Um.

"Oh, you know... the beach."

Game End: Town "Wins"

Last edited by Akonyl on May 28th, 2017, 11:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

So here's some overall thoughts. I'm going to put it in a spoiler because it's a bit of a wall of text, but in summary:

-too many roles-I think there's starting to be a little too many abilities per role-So many Special investigates-When's Ayumi's Grandma gonna get added in?

Spoiler:

Overall round stuff:You can try to balance a mafia round, but in the end, it's not always gonna work out just from how the game goes. I think there's definitely some issues in the game right now, but also that largely they aren't what caused things to be so lopsided for the town. That was just some general mafia randomness that happened, in three big events early on that kind of shaped the general momentum of the game:1) The BO accidentally hindered a Day 1 lynch late in the phase. Haibara was originally going to die in D1's lynch, until a D1 BO vote randomly tied it a few hours before phase change.2) The BO randomly hit Jecka's heal target N2. I'm pretty sure this was random, at least, because Jecka was the most inactive player in the round and apparently wasn't part of the town alliance until later in the game. During N5 Jecka also managed to save someone, but by that time the BO was already done for, so it's not as big a deal as that initial N2 heal.3) The Raiden Situation. While this was less random occurrence, it was also an edge case, and one that I think is valid and also funny (as someone who it didn't screw over, I know PT doesn't think it was funny ), and Totally Mafia. Basically, Raiden was Vermouth-Camel, Henry was Jodie, and Yurikochan was James. On N3, the BO killed Jodie, which forced the only results for James to get to be from Vermouth-Camel. On that same night, Raiden StakeOuted Kamite, and saw Nothing, while he claimed that Something had happened to Kamite, directly to Yuriko. Having gotten the Nothing results from Raiden, Yuriko knew this was a lie, and so Raiden was lynched. A lot of things had to happen in order for this mistake to come together, so I don't think there's anything really bad about this that needs to be rebalanced.

Town/BO balance:18 players is a kind of obnoxious number, choosing 6 felt like too many BO, but 5 felt like too few. However, because Town's only won 1 of the previous 10ish FM rounds, and BO won both my most recent rounds too (rounds 13+25) I felt like I'd err on the side of the town. To try to offset it I put Amuro and Okiya in the town for the scent, and put a bunch of non-scent + non-BO-interrogate roles on the BO squad, hoping that Conan or Haibara would end up detecting it and making things a bit more confusing for town. Nobody except unsuspicious townies got investigated though, up until the point when the BO-lynch snowball had already started up, so it fell flat.

Abduct:Abduct used to be a decent ability, it used to have an actual purpose. As you can see in the rules that limit its use, it was actually thought to be too good at one point, so it was given a stipulation of "only once every two Night phases if more than 15 people". But this ability is complete trash now, even without the nerfing stipulation. The initial idea of the ability was that Abduct would either give you useful information on narrowing down a townie, or, more likely, it would give you a useful role that wasn't in the game so that a BO member could claim that role and get away with it (unless confronted by an interrogator/sniffer/DB). The stipulation was added because with more players, the out-of-game role list becomes too small and you'd gain too much info by continuous abducting. The issue here is that the role list has ballooned to ridiculous proportions. Like, you could have Tequila abduct and almost expect to receive "Ayumi's Grandma" as a role that isn't in the game, which would be completely pointless to you. There's a few ways this ability could be maybe fixed:a) Remove the every-other-night stipulation: It's not necessary at all anymore with the sheer amount of roles, if the role list is kept the same.b) Allow Tequila the ability to specify an abducted ability (limited to certain abilities): This would let Tequila search for a useful non-town role with an ability they wanted to pretend as, regardless of the number of roles/abilities existing in the game. Leave specific non-ubiquitous abilities (like Research/Clumsy) out of the possible abductable list so that it can't easily be used as a poor man's Detect.c) Give Tequila a Friendship-esque list: Let Tequila specify a list of X roles to try to Abduct, and then give a random one in the list that isn't in the game (Or, if he's lucky enough, tell him that they're all in the game).

Number of roles:I know that everyone who GM's wants to add their own spin onto Mafia, I totally get it, I've done it myself. When a role gets added to the game though, even if it never shows up, it still effects the game balance. I think each role added is biased towards the town a bit, since when it comes to info gathering, the BO has to narrow people down to a specific exact role in order to successfully APTX (which only gets harder as more roles with the same ability get introduced), where the Town (DBs aside) is generally less interested in knowing your exact role and more in your abilities+whether you can pass interrogation or not. Townie roles should be added sparingly, either to introduce a new ability that you think would make the game more fun, or to help hide a role that is too obvious currently, not just because the role showed up in the show once. Chipmunk Cop and Curacao don't actually need to be in Forum Mafia, despite what Movie Night thinks . They could have a place in MM, since that's never balanced with only like 5 people playing at a time, but when it comes to a game that can take multiple weeks, I think attempting to keep things more balanced is better than being able to joke about "omg, Curacao killed Mitsuhiko?! How could she D:", which you could just as easily make in an unbalanced crack game that takes half an hour.

APTX:It was briefly mentioned up there, but specifically in regards to APTX, the point of APTX is supposed to be that it gives townies reasons to distrust each other to the point that they don't just ally everybody willy-nilly telling people they can investigate/stake-out or whatever. I feel like this was probably a large factor in how fast the town allied 100% this round, because there's hardly any reason to be cagey about your role anymore or where you get info from or how you know someone's BO/innocent when there's probably at least 4 or 5 other roles that could fit the description. PT briefly mentioned in IRC that "BO needs more poison", but I don't really agree. Poison needs to be more effective than it currently is, but I think that's mainly just a symptom of how bloated the roles list has become.

Number of actions per role:This isn't as particularly big an issue as the # of roles, but I've noticed a little bit of it. Although partially my fault in this round, I noticed this especially with "special" investigate, which was available to many more townies than I initially remembered (initially only Tome/James/Kir, but now also Okiya/Amuro/Yuusaku). At this point it feels less like "Special Investigate" and more like "Alternate Investigate". Also with "swingy" roles. Healer/protector roles by their nature are pretty swingy: If you ever manage a successful save, you greatly help the town, but if you don't, you're kind of useless. This is in contrast to info-gathering roles, which tend to lend to a more gradual but constant information buildup for the town. This is kinda by design though, roles which have potential to make a huge difference by themselves and save lives have to have the flipside of sometimes not being as useful. Why did Protectors gain Stalk? Why did Araide gain Sleeping Pill? These really don't seem like necessary abilities to me, they're just there to make the healer/protector feel like they're always doing something, which I really don't think is necessary for inherently swingy roles. When your successful action manages to negate a night/day death, I think that's enough that you don't need a fallback "filler" ability just to manage the times you're out of the loop. Why did Yamato gain Arrest? Being an adaptable First Aider / Investigator is pretty valuable itself, being able to adjust yourself to the anticipated situation of info gathering or important-person-protection, that arresting on top of that seems like a little bit of overkill to me. I see people saying things like "maybe Haibara should have Antidote", but that just seems like power creep to me. Haibs used to be considered one of the most powerful town roles with basically a non-slanderable interrogate, so if she's starting to feel a little underpowered, maybe that's a sign that other roles are being made too powerful, not that Haibs needs to be buffed more.